10 Expensive countries a couple can visit for the price of 1 year LKG fee!

Each time a new iPhone is released, some people come up with article like “10 destinations that are cheaper than the new iPhone”. When I saw the rate card for Bishop Cottons school in Bengaluru’s LKG admission fee, I couldn’t help but wonder how much parents can travel if they can save all that money. In addition to Bishop Cotton's 2 lakh+ fee, there's a news of this Pune school asking 2.5 lakhs donation in addition to 80k fee. Sisya in Chennai is sold out till 2022!

This post is a quick list based on that thought.  Of course I am not trying to propagate any ideas like education is not important or don’t have kids or anything like that. Everything has its value and each one has to decide for themselves what is worth how much. This post only explains how much minimum it costs to visit various countries in the world, which are usually deemed very expensive to visit. If you include cheaper to visit countries, there will be a dozen more.

#	Country	Return Flight per person, INR	Other Expenses	Total	Remarks
1	Japan	20k (Air Asia Sale) 32k Srilankan	50-60k per person for a week (18k JR Pass, capsule hotels)	80k per person	Detailed Post
2	Australia	21k (Air Asia Sale)	40k per person for a week (visa 8-10k)	60k per person	Detailed Post
3	Paris	30 to 40k (Jet, Air India)	25k per person for a week	65k per person	Cheaper if clubbed with few other Schengen countries (Belgium. Netherland etc)
4	Denmark	45k (Air India)	25k per person for a week	70k per person	Club with Sweden /Netherland/ Germany n save Read all Denmark posts here
5	New Zealand	23k (Air Asia sale)	67k per person for a week (17k in NZ and Australia visa, 30k car rental, 20k stay n other expenses	1 lakh per person	Save a bit by not renting a car but can’t experience countryside well
6	Singapore	15k (Scoot)	50k per person for a week (4k visa, decent hotel at 3k per day, entry to attractions, meals etc	65k per person	Read Singapore posts here
7	Switzerland	40k (Air France)	55k (25k Swiss Pass, 8k visa, 22k hotel n other expense for 4-5 days)	95k per person	Cheaper if clubbed with few other Schengen countries Read Europe posts
8	Hong Kong	18-20k (Air Asia)	30k for 7 days(Stay, Disneyland & visit to Macau etec)	50k per person
9	Dubai	10-15k (indigo, off-season)	40k for 7 days (decent hotel, outdoor activities etc)	55k per person
10	Maldives	15k (Spicejet, Srilankan)	60k for 3 days in mid level luxury resort	75k per person	Cheaper per person in case of large groups, budget stay available

• Flight rates are the lowest I have seen during sale or promotional offers- can be availed if you can plan well. Stay tuned to airlineblog for regular updates on sales
• I have included all major expenses (like JR pass for Japan, Swiss pass for Switzerland etc)
• Above is per person. Multiply by 1.5 or 1.6 for two people (accommodation expense will be shared, won’t be 2x)
• I’ve tried to limit per person expense at 1 lakh- haven’t included even more expensive destinations, so that a couple can visit these destinations for the price of a one year school fee.

All these is within 1 year LKG fee. Consider the amount one has to spend for the kid to reach Class 12^th- that is 2 years of pre-school and 12 years of schooling. 14 years into approx. 3 lakhs per year- 42 lakhs- enough to travel the world 3 times over!

Irrespective of whether you like the idea or not, it is serious time to reconsider cost of education in India. Your thoughts?